Landmark Win for Low-Wage AFSCME Members

03/30/2018

The workers at the iconic Westside cultural center, the nonprofit Museum of Tolerance, have succeeded in reaching a landmark first contract with management, ratified in the last few days by a vote of more than 80 percent! The Museum’s curriculum teaches social justice values and highlights the struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez, but those values fell flat when it came to the center’s own workforce – many of whom were earning the minimum wage despite holding college degrees.

The victory was particularly sweet because management had adamantly refused to budge on its wage proposals, even though the senior administrators were themselves earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Once the workers chose to go public with their wage demands, and threatened to expose these stark pay inequities, management suddenly started singing a different tune.